Ratatouille

[cupcake]

My first post after years of lurking! Loved this movie and the ending was just perfect. Re Remy not tasting, I wonder if it is because he is a you know what (umm, a r-a-t.) Aside from the "spoons down!" part at the end where humans weren't cooking and he did taste, he checked everything out using his sense of smell. Not that it matters since he's using a separate spoon, but it's a theory! What a great movie, and such a triumph of spirit and an expression of the joy of what it means to create something for the pleasure of making something good. I'm interested to see what kind of marketing they end up with for this movie since that seems to be a marker of success. I saw that they have produce and wine tie-ins, which seems better than action figures (although they also seem to have your basic Disney Store type of merchandise), but I admit I am not exactly the action figure demographic. Looking forward to the DVD and pulling for the movie to be a big success! C.

[Curlz]

I took my niece (5.75--and don't call her 5.5 any more!) to see this yesterday, and concur with much of what has already been said. I was just glad to have a kid to take along--next time, maybe I'll take a chef!

As for Remy not tasting, he did in fact try all the dishes in the final cooking scene--right from the ladles. And since all of the rats who were cooking had gone through the dishwasher, I was just fine with that! heehee

Definitely worth seeing, esp for folks on these and other food blogs.

[KristiB50]

As for Remy not tasting, he did in fact try all the dishes in the final cooking scene--right from the ladles.  And since all of the rats who were cooking had gone through the dishwasher, I was just fine with that!  heehee

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I loved that part. They were clean rats!

HERE one of the animators discuss how he came up with the taste visualization scenes.

With Ratatouille hitting No. 1 on the box-office charts this past weekend — though its $47 million take notably fell short of the openings of past Pixar hits Cars and Monsters, Inc. — animator and comics artist Michael Gagné sheds light on one tiny but delightful aspect of the film. Gagné designed and animated those nifty little taste explosions, the vibrant representations of flavor that surround Remy and Emilie, for director Brad Bird. On his own blog, Gagné breaks down the process in great detail, from the first phone call to the final product — complete with QuickTime video!

Edited July 4, 2007 by KristiB50 (log)

[jgm]

I saw it over the weekend and loved it! My favorite part was near the beginning, when Remy and his brother were on the roof trying to get a smoky flavor on -- what was it -- a mushroom with cheese? by holding it over the smoke from the chimney. Only a real foodie would go to such lengths!

When my husband gets back in town, we'll go see it again, and I'm hoping to catch a lot more things. I would encourage those who've caught things that refer to specific chefs, etc., to post about them. I'd love to have a mental list of things to look for!

And for those of you who think you have to go with a child, get over it already. You're missing a lot of good movies. After seeing Ratatouille, go rent Ice Age and Stuart Little. Just because a movie is animated, doesn't mean you have to be a child to enjoy it. Most of them are being written on (at least) two levels, and sometimes I feel sorry for the children who are really missing the best parts.

[I_call_the_duck]

I saw it yesterday with Mr. Duck, and there were more adults in the theatre than adults with kids. Thoroughly delightful movie, but the credits were rolling by so quickly that I barely got a chance to read the names. I caught Thomas Keller, and I was wondering if it was the Thomas Keller, or just some dude who just happened to have the same name. Glad to hear that it was indeed the great man himself.

[docsconz]

Being a total geek, I found myself picking out ideas that I felt came straight from Keller's cookbooks as well as references to great chefs of the past (Fernand Point, et al.). Did anyone else catch all of that?

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Gusteau certainly reminded me physically of Fernand Point.

I very much enjoyed the movie - more than my kids. We went as a family Sunday night.

[Curlz]

For the full list of cast and most of the credits (only one person listed under Thanks), click here for the IMDB page. IMDB is great for just this sort of info!

[I_call_the_duck]

^Yeah, I've been imdb-ing this morning, but they didn't have the food-related credits listed.

[Jmahl]

Point was obvious. Wonderful film. Just see it. It is a foodies dream.

Jmahl

[Busboy]

Being a total geek, I found myself picking out ideas that I felt came straight from Keller's cookbooks as well as references to great chefs of the past (Fernand Point, et al.). Did anyone else catch all of that?

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Gusteau certainly reminded me physically of Fernand Point..

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I htouhgt the face was more Bocuse-ian, though.

Great flick.

[KristiB50]

I read THIS book and was also reminded of Bernard Loiseau, who also committed suicide over the loss of a Michelin star.

Great book btw.

[tan319]

Best food flick ever!

Gusteau maybe was a composite of Bocuse/ Bernard Loiseau/ I've never seen any pix of Point.

My daughter said " wow, those guys are all like the cooks in your kitchen!"

[oneidaone]

Saw the movie in the morning on our anniversary, loved it! I was kind of confused at first with the mini movie "Lift" though. Anyway I really enjoyed the music, the animation and even the big eyes. What seemed somewhat unecessary was the scene of the couple with the gun fighting and then kissing madly, I don't know why we needed to see domestic violence portrayed. I loved the rats going through the dishwasher!

[purplewiz]

We saw the movie last weekend and loved it. I'm an animation fan to begin with, and when you add in food, well, it was wonderful. I was thoroughly charmed.

I don't know if we can discuss the ending here (I don't want to spoil it!), but I liked it. I thought it was true to the message of you have to be yourself and be true to yourself.

I was not surprised to see Anthony Bourdain's name in the credits: the characters in the kitchen and Colette's speech to Linguini seemed to be straight out of Kitchen Confidential.

Afterwards, I had to answer a lot of foodie questions from my husband. His conclusion was that I saw a very different movie than he did .

Marcia.

[chuchelo]

My husband and I saw the movie today and both of us really enjoyed it. Really fun & foodie! For another take on the filmmaking process, see this blog entry from a former stagiaire at Guy Savoy:

http://msglaze.typepad.com/paris/2007/06/r...ouille-pre.html

[Nathan]

I thought it was terrific. as for Linguini not being a cook at the end....as with the Incredibles (same director)...the eventual thrust of the movie is that ability can come from any background...but not everyone has it. so, no, not everyone can cook.

I highly recommend A.O. Scott's ruminations on the movie in the NY Times. perhaps the best cinematic contextual reference for the flick would be something like Andrei Rublev.

[Reefpimp]

I liked it just a ton. I'm an animation fan from waaaaaaaay back (cartoons and a fun-log, anyone?) and this one just does a stellar job of stretching the bounds of what's possible. It presents the familiar in a new light, much like a good chef can do. Kudos to Disney/Pixar for letting the final plating just be what it it is, without a lot of garnish.

[Busboy]

In case anyone's interested, here's the recipe for the star dish. I think a theme dinner-and-a-movie with my francophilic, vegetarian friend is in order.

Daniel -- assuming that one does not have access to decades-old first growths, do you have any suggestions for a proper wine?

[KatieLoeb]

Thoroughly charming, utterly adorable and unflinchingly realistic with the restaurant and food scenes. The various personalities in the kitchen were just perfect. I loved Colette's little lecture about how each of them came to work in the restaurant. This hit really close to home for me, having worked in so many restaurants.

I was crying laughing (literally) toward the end when the rats have taken over the kitchen. This is one of the cutest movies ever. Can't wait until I can own it. I absolutely loved it. Best foodie movie in ages.

[Seattlegirlychef]

I just saw the flick last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was amazed at how well the creators did so much homework on the actual workings of a kitchen and bringing so much passion for cooking into the movie. I'm wondering if anyone knows about the sweetbreads special that Linguini becomes famous for...what exactly was in it? Collette rambles off the menu description so fast, it was hard to follow. Thank you Busboy who posted the ratatouille recipe from Thomas Keller, my husband wants me to make it tomorrow night! What an ingredient list! At least it's a fairly cheap dish to make. I'm just wondering how he made it so compact and small, without the the thin disks of squash toppling over and losing it's shape. Interesting, anywhoo, back to life....

[Sam Iam]

We usually wait until a movie is out on DVD before we see it. However, this one will probably be the exception!

I'm guessing that this will be available in BluRay or similiar quality, so I'm going to start shopping for a new 1080p TV this week!

(And quit yapping about a Diva induction cooktop for a few weeks)

[dockhl]

In case anyone's interested, here's the recipe for the star dish.  I think a theme dinner-and-a-movie with my francophilic, vegetarian friend is in order.

Daniel -- assuming that one does not have access to decades-old first growths, do you have any suggestions for a proper wine? 

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Does anyone know where I could find a picture of the finished dish? I haven't seen the movie and probably won't be able to for a while but I'd love to see Remy's Ratatouille !

[plk]

You can see the dish being prepared here. Plated, it's a little spiraly stack of the veg rounds.

[Kevin72]

I utterly adored the movie. That's funny that Bourdain was involved since I was wondering what he thought, particularly in light of Collette's speech. It just gets all the passion of cooking right. I love the detail of him "seeing" the flavors.

**Spoiler**

And, the critic's childhood flashback after his first bite of the ratatouille was so perfect and spot on about how evocative and powerful food can be.

[Porthos]

I went to see this movie with my wife and our 2 daughters, ages 20 and 26. The first words out of my mouth after the credits ended were, "I can't wait for the DVD so I can read all of the credits."

We all thoroughly enjoyed the movie (can't imagine someone not liking it), and will be buying the DVD when it becomes available. We are all Pixar fans and this just added to our admiration of the work the do.

Anyone who reads my posts knows that I am not a restaurant professional - I'm an engineer. One of the tiny details put into the film caught my eye and defined for me just how much effort was put into creating realistic kitchen staff. That tiny detail is when Collette gets off of her motorbike and grabs her roll-up case of knives to take into work with her. I doubt 1 out of 20 viewers will ever notice but for me it spoke volumes.